The blog that NOBODY reads... but everyone gets upset about.
Exposing the dark underside of the political world of Clark County, Washington... The least read and most talked about blog around.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Voter apathy: Why aren't the young voting?

The voter apathy post brings me to a discussion I had with a young woman a couple of days ago... our daughter, to be precise.

She
is half owner of a home at the ripe old age of 22. She has 2 years of
college. She works hard, and has since she turned 16. She is a daughter who overcame some rough issues and has turned herself into the kind of daughter most would want to have.

I have had to nag her to vote. Her two female roommates, in their mid 20's, aren't even registered.

This discussion came up because she watched the Trump appearance on Saturday Night Live and declared it "not funny."

I said she likely wasn't in the demo.

She didn't like that... "we are the future," she told me.

Almost like entertainment by politicians was an entitlement.

I said, yes, you are the future.

"But
what do you know about the issues? Before you voted here locally, what
did you know about the issues confronting the county? Or Battle
Ground?"

I went on, "and at the national level, what do
you know about, say, Chinese expansionism in the Spratly Islands, or
Russian hegemony in the Middle East, or ISIS and how much money and
military equipment ISIS has captured... the fiscal impacts of our trade
deficit; the failure of so many programs that have wasted billions...
our horrendous, unpayable national debt and the attitude of
'entitlement' permeating this country today... where those you elect
want to "give" you everything as if it were free... while none on your
demo stop to think that NOTHING is free and you are NOT entitled to take
the fruits of others labors because someone promises you that which
they cannot deliver and have no moral right to deliver even if they
could... the idea that presidential candidates and other politicians
want to give away free stuff that others have to pay for to buy your
vote?"

Blank look.

"How," I went on, "can you be the future if you don't know anything about our past and our present? How
can you make an informed decision on who to vote for if you don't have a
clue about what their history is, what they've done in the past and
what they'll do in the future?"

And that's when it hit me:

They don't care because they don't know. They don't know because they don't want to know.

Reality is an unpleasant construct. And that's why those in that demographic are so eager to avoid it.

Young
people are far more interested in ways to get messed up. The latest
drug. The best pot strains. The next great mind/mood altering
substance.

They'll do massive amounts of research on the latest craze, fashion, celebrity, band, rapper, drugs.

But they won't pick up a newspaper or research a candidate.

And that, I believe, is why the young don't vote. Because if they knew what was happening out in the real world, they might. But if they don't know and don't care, they certainly won't vote.

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Words of Wisdom

"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

Plato

"This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America."

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN)

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell, the author of 1984

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Dr. Martin Luther King

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."

Alexis de Tocqueville

"A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example."Niccolo Machiavelli

“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Washington State Constitution, Declaration of Rights

"All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights." - Article 1, Section 1

"The right of petition and of the people peaceably to assemble for the common good shall never be abridged." - Article 1, Section 4

"The first power reserved by the people is the initiative." - Article 2, Section 1(a)